Treading lightly...
Every day for the last 3 weeks we have heard, “Water will be turned on tomorrow!”
Now we are caught in the middle of a disgruntled family. The water WAS all hooked up! Even turned on! But one cousin got upset, so he dug up the pipes and disconnected the water.
The ceremony to resolve all this was much like the bartering for a bride! Our neighbors sent a representative to negotiate... No goats were exchanged - just money (the modern way).
Now, we supposedly will get water... but it will only be turned on at night. Not a lot of help for washing clothes or dishes!
How can we keep our minds and hearts in the right place? It hasn’t been easy!
Hauling another bucket full of water...
Is it really worth a second rinse of these clothes? ... the first rinse water is still a dark brown... (thanks, Sam!)
Saved buckets of nasty used dishwater lining the hall (now ready for their 3rd use - first as dish rinse water, then dish washing, now on to the toilet...)
I woke up this morning with a thought ringing in my mind. “Don’t get caught up in the mud (literally) and loose focus of what is really important here!”
These are the neighbors God has called us to!
A hurting family - a nephew who would treat his aunt with such hatred!
Many are watching us... how will we respond? How will we react to inconvenience? How will we face injustice?
I love this quote from Krista Finch - somehow it has spoken to a lot of situations we’ve faced here in Kenya! Today it applies to “water”!
"We miss something remarkable when happiness is our pursuit. Because happiness is a brief vapor at her very best. What's more, there is something beautiful about getting what you get, something lovely in the mess, something divine in the ordinary. And the something is grace.
Grace to smile in sickness, to dance in death, to cartwheel in chaos, to strike a pose, though all around us and inside us crumbles. Grace to understand that this isn't the way things are supposed to be, at least not forever. But it's the way things are now and here. Grace to believe there is plenty of grace for all of it. All we have to do is receive it; live, that is. Life, as is.
And if we'll take what life gives, grace will find us -- in all her fierceness and splendor, dressed in chain mail and armor, ready to pin a sprig of lilac on our collars. But she only comes to those of us who find ourselves in the places where brokenness and rejoicing coexist. Places where bitter death tolls harmonize with strains of celebration. Places where broken bones dance to the trumpet's blast..."
Wow, so true. It is much easier said than done. Thanks for your families example of finding that place of rest and peace during turmoil. You guys are a constant source of encouragement for me right now. Thanks again.
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